Downtown businesses want private security patrols

City councillors will be asked tonight to spend up to $60,000 to relaunch private security patrols downtown for the remainder of this year.

The Downtown Association paid for overnight private security patrols from 2020 to 2022.

Last year, the city assumed responsibility for the patrols as part of a six-month pilot program.

Tom Vair, the city's deputy chief administrative officer for community development and enterprise services, will outline a number of options tonight for continuing private patrols in 2024, with the final cost to be decided during 2024 budget deliberations.

Nicholas Rosset, chair of the Downtown Association, will appear tonight to affirm that his group is willing to share in the cost of patrolling the city core.

Rosset will present findings from a recent poll of his membership, including preferred hours of coverage, and a recommendation from one member who's suggesting classical music be piped in to locations where loitering occurs.

The following are excerpts from a written report prepared by Tom Vair for tonight's meeting:

The cost for the previous security patrol initiative was $105,378 per annum. It is anticipated that any future request for proposals will see an increase in costs for a similar service due to inflation particularly related to fuel costs.

Using an increase of four per cent would bring the estimate to $109,593. Should council wish additional hours of coverage (day time, early morning) this can also be explored with the hourly rate being approximately $28 to $32 an hour.

The request for proposals (RFP) package issued for the previous pilot indicated the city was interested in receiving the recommendation of proponents as to the best method to provide security patrol services (drive-by, occasional foot patrol) and welcomed other innovative ideas that fit within the budget of this pilot project.

One proponent did respond with an option for a patrol with less hours that would be assisted by a camera system in the most prone location. The cost was slightly more than the budget and wasn’t selected at the time. This could be a consideration for a future RFP should council choose to support ongoing security patrols. Updated technology capabilities and pricing may be available and this option could be explored further.

It is also recommended that, should the city proceed with an RFP for services, a request to have consistency in the personnel who provide security services is sought. This will enable the security patrol team to develop knowledge and awareness of the downtown, business owners and key locations.

Initially, the hours of operation for the pilot security patrol was 10pm-6am seven days per week. The security patrol pilot was adjusted as of November 7, 2022 to shift the security patrols to 6am-4pm coverage. There was a desire by the Downtown Association to trial a shift to daytime hours as some expressed limited value to the nighttime patrols and wanted to evaluate daytime patrols.

In advance of this report, the Downtown Association conducted a survey of its members and the results indicate that 58.9 per cent of members would prefer mixed daytime and overnight security patrols; 23.5 per cent chose overnight security service and 17.6 per cent chose daytime security service.

The survey also indicated that 41.2 per cent of respondents felt homelessness and addiction was their main concern; 20.6 per cent theft; 17.6 per cent vandalism; 8.8 per cent all of the above; 2.9 per cent break and enters; 2.9 per cent loitering.

The geographic area covered by the pilot program was on commercial businesses located along Queen Street (from Pim Street to Gore Street) with patrols along the front and rear of businesses. The patrol route included Bay Street and this included the alleyways and rear of businesses between Queen Street and Bay Street. In addition, the patrol included secondary patrols along Gore Street and to Huron Street (covering the Canal District and Mill Market properties).

There has been some communication from members of the community seeking to increase the geographic footprint of the patrols to include the broader downtown area. In order to have effective patrols (frequency of patrol), it is anticipated an expanded geographic area will require additional security personnel and fees.

Sault Ste. Marie Police Services confirmed that downtown SSMPS patrols will continue into the fall on a voluntary basis funded by a provincial grant.

In addition, SSMPS have utilized provincial grant money to partner with the PUC and Spectrum (current vendor of record for highway cameras) to install up to 30 PUC light pole cameras as well as six to eight Spectrum cameras in the downtown core. Currently the Privacy Commissioner is reviewing this project and SSMPS will ensure compliance with privacy legislation. Once an incident occurs, investigators will be able pull up the recorded data and begin the investigation. This project has been underway since March of this year.

In addition, the SSMPS will be providing a downtown policing proposal to the Police Services board this fall to increase policing in the downtown core.

Given that 41.2 per cent of Downtown Association members cited homelessness and addiction was their main concern, another consideration for city council would be to consider a mix of security patrols and expanded hours of the Downtown Ambassador program to include daytime hours (suggested as 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. or 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. The cost for an additional 20 hours per week would be approximately $56,160.

The financial implication of downtown security patrols and services will depend on the option selected by council – type of service (security patrols, Downtown Ambassador), hours of service and geographic boundaries.

The cost for re-implementing the previous service is estimated to be approximately $110,000 per year.

Tonight's city council meeting will be live-streamed on SooToday starting at 5 p.m.